Revisiting The Principles And Conditions Of Ta wīl According To Qāḍī Nu mān

Qāḍī Nu’mān, a well-known Islma’īlī jurisprudent (faqīh), introduced a different approach to the problem of interpretation (ta’wīl) from other Isma’īlī scholars. In contrast with the dominant Isma’īlī view that is too liberal with interior interpretations and sometimes leads to mistakes, Qāḍī Nu’mān commits himself with ta’wīl with an eye to the explicit meanings of texts. With this moderate approach to ta’wīl, he tries to be immune from errors of other Isma’īlī scholars. He takes the apparent meanings of the Quran to be silent and a miracle of the Prophet (s) and the interior (bāṭin) meanings of the Quran (ta’wīl) to be a miracle of the Shiite Imams (a). He takes ta’wīl to be a discipline that is verifiable in terms of Quranic verses and some rules and principles. Although he made some implausible ta’wīls or interpretations, we can extract some rules and conditions for ta’wīl from his views: considering both the apparent and the interior or hidden meanings, conceptual relation between ta’wīl and reasoning, the effect of purity or piety on the accuracy of ta’wīl, its leading to Imam (a)’s knowledge, and the role of faith in the accuracy of ta’wīl. Despite the advantages of Qāḍī Nu’mān’s approach to ta’wīl, there are serious problems with it that I shall deal with in this paper.